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For more than 100 years the Society of Professional Journalists has been dedicated to encouraging a climate in which journalism can be practiced more freely and fully, stimulating high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism and perpetuating a free press.

About the Foundation

Since its founding in 1961, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation has promoted excellence and ethics in journalism. The SDX Foundation is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization that supports the educational programs of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves the professional needs of journalists and students pursuing careers in journalism.

Excellence in Journalism 2016Sept 7-9, 2017 – Anaheim

Excellence in Journalism is the national journalism conference of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Join us in September in Anaheim for training, networking, workshops and more!

SPJ Leads

SPJ News

SPJ Blogs: Newest Posts

Quill Headlines

Journalist's Toolbox

@SPJ_Tweets

Connect with SPJ

SPJ on Facebook

Upcoming Eventsand Deadlines

Become an SPJ Member

For more than 100 years the Society of Professional Journalists has been dedicated to encouraging a climate in which journalism can be practiced more freely and fully, stimulating high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism and perpetuating a free press.

About the Foundation

Since its founding in 1961, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation has promoted excellence and ethics in journalism. The SDX Foundation is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization that supports the educational programs of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves the professional needs of journalists and students pursuing careers in journalism.

Excellence in Journalism 2016Sept 7-9, 2017 – Anaheim

Excellence in Journalism is the national journalism conference of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Join us in September in Anaheim for training, networking, workshops and more!

INDIANAPOLIS — The Society of Professional Journalists launched one of its most aggressive initiatives to assist journalists with a Web-based directory of state prison policies governing access to inmates.

“For the first time ever, we go beyond what even state government has attempted — or refuses to do,” said Kyle Elyse Niederpruem, SPJ Board president and an assistant city editor at The Indianapolis Star.

SPJ’s Project Sunshine volunteers — a network of experts and journalists from each state — collected regulations from state correction officials. The online resource provides copies of state policies in a downloadable form.

In addition to the policies, the site includes:

* A summary of rules governing reporting tools that can be used during media interviews * Public visitation list procedures* Special notes about inmate visitation lists* Information about witnessing executions* Contacts for state corrections agencies and governors’ offices

Gary Hill, director of investigations for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis and a former SPJ chapter president, said the online directory will assist his team in daily reporting.

“We now have a record number of Americans under lock and key,” Hill said. “Keeping an eye on our prisons was never more important for professional journalists.

“While our station is located in Minnesota, our signal reaches well into Wisconsin and skirts Iowa and both Dakotas,” Hill added. “This helps to let us know where we stand before we ever approach the prison authorities for access.”

In some cases, state officials refused to provide the information. Eventually, since these policies are public record, the states complied with the Society’s requests. The Society is encouraging state governments to post their policies electronically, a service that fewer than a dozen states now provide.

“Our organization has been the leader in prison access issues,” said Ian Marquand, chairman of the Society’s Freedom of Information Committee. “We, as journalists, once again are the public’s eyes and ears on these issues.”

SPJ has taken the lead — nationally and locally — in recognizing that access to prisons is an important issue. The organization has filed formal objections to restrictive policies, written prison officials, testified at state hearings and lobbied for increased public access to prisons.

“The documentation becomes very important when you are trying to negotiate your way into a prison,” said Charles Davis, director of the Freedom of Information Center at the Missouri School of Journalism. “You have to know what the (rules are) before you go.”